“It’s less inspired by one Western movie than by Bonanza, The Virginians, High Chaparral, Twice per season, those shows would have an episode
where a bunch of outlaws would take the lead characters hostage. They
would come to the Ponderosa and hold everybody hostage, or to go Judge
Garth’s place–Lee J. Cobb played him–in The Virginians, and take
hostages. There would be a guest star like David Carradine, Darren
McGavin, Claude Akins, Robert Culp, Charles Bronson or James Coburn. I
don’t like that storyline in a modern context, but I love it in a
Western where you would pass halfway through the show to find out if
they were good or bad guys, and they all had a past that was revealed.
“I thought, what if I did a movie starring nothing but those characters?
No heroes, no Michael Landons. Just a bunch of nefarious guys in a
room, all telling back stories that may or may not be true. Trap those
guys together in a room with a blizzard outside, give them guns, and see
what happens.”